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Response Details

Questionnaire Name

TennCare II - Amendment 38

Description

Tennessee proposes to amend its demonstration to add community engagement requirements as a condition of eligibility for certain individuals age 19 through 64 who are enrolled in the parent/caretaker relative eligibility group. The federal public comment period will be open from January 8, 2019 to February 7, 2019.

Response From

ID: #399605 on Jan 23rd 2019 12:12 pm

TennCare II - Amendment 38

TennCare II - Amendment 38

We encourage the public to submit their comments on Medicaid.gov as they relate to demonstrations open for public comments. In support of transparency and open government, all public comments received are immediately posted and are in the public domain. Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services staff will review all public comments posted and we reserve the discretion to delete comments that are generally understood as any of the following: obscene, profane, threatening, or otherwise inappropriate.

1) It is my understanding that there is a minimal number of TennCare participants that will not be exempt from these new work requirements. It is troubling to think we will take TANF funds to fund the costs of this initiative which is not predicted to generate any great savings for Tennessee.

2) I do not believe we should embrace a proposal with so much left to be defined at some later date. The TennCare responses to their own comment period input are full of references to "framework," "intends," "continue to design" and "as the program is operationalized." Lives are at stake - exempt families will face "undefined" requirements to establish and retain their exempt status in a state with pockets without broadband service, areas of low-educated populations and communities with low-economic / employment conditions.